Life Skills

Life skills are very complex tasks which require specific teaching and plenty of practice.

Children and young people with autism can find learning and acquiring a variety of life skills difficult, whereas typically developing/neurotypical children and young people spontaneously develop many life skills, particularly through imitation. Teenagers with autism need to be taught life skills.

Life skills are very complex tasks and so require specific teaching, practice and adapted visual strategies. These skills can be categorised as ‘thinking skills’ and ‘learning skills’.

Thinking Skills:

Creativity and imagination

Problem solving

Decision making

Self-knowledge

Critical thinking

Assessing and analysing information

Learning Skills:

Agility and adaptability

Receiving and giving feedback

Handling criticism

Innovation and exploration

Learner autonomy

Life skills and activities fall into three areas:

Work (pre vocational and employability skills, carrying out responsibilities and delegated tasks)

Self – care (personal hygiene, grooming, dressing and toileting)

Leisure (hobbies, sports community groups)

Many of the core difficulties associated with autism limit the ability to learn and develop life skills. Teenagers with autism may have difficulty with: